Wofford’s defense, which led the Southern Conference in turnovers caused last season, has a goal of forcing seven turnovers each practice against the regular offense.

On Saturday, the first day in full pads, there were six in a span of about a dozen plays from scrimmage. They came so quickly that defensive coordinator Shiel Wood lost count.

“OK,” he said, “we need two more.”

A couple of the defensive players on the sideline gave each other puzzled looks.

“We have six, right?”

“I think so.”

Yes, it was six.

In a matter of just a few minutes, senior safety Malik Rivera made a one-handed interception, junior safety JoJo Tillery had an interception as well and then so did sophomore cornerback Dmitri Redwood, sophomore safety Mason Alstatt and senior linebacker Colton Clemons. Sophomore defensive lineman Campbell Jackson had a strip and a fumble recovery in the backfield. That made six.

The seventh turnover was perhaps the most impressive. It was the second interception for Alstatt, who is in line to take over the starting strong safety position left vacant by the graduation of Jaleel Green. Or maybe it would be considered a forced fumble because Alstatt just took the ball away from a wide receiver after a catch and went the other way.

“We got all those pretty quickly today,” senior defensive lineman Daryl Vining said. “We were running to the ball. That’s half the thing. We know what we’re supposed to do. If we do what we’re supposed to do, we’ll get a lot of turnovers and be a great defense again.”

About This Blog

Todd Shanesy is an award-winning sports writer who has been twice honored nationally by the Associated Press and more than three dozen times by the South Carolina Press Association. He is a native of Troy, Ohio, and studied journalism at Marshall University (1987 graduate). Shanesy is a former sports editor of the Florence (S.C.) Morning News and has been with the Spartanburg Herald-Journal since 1991.

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